Brooklyn New York Cemetery
by Sofipitch
Summary: Annabeth wants to talk to a genius. Not just research him, no, she asks Nico to summon Edward Elric from the dead for a school research paper. (No real timeline for PJO although I pretend to have one.) (2003 FMA anime spoilers)


Title: Brooklyn New York Cemetery  
Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians/Fullmetal Alchemist (2003 anime) crossover  
Author: Sofipitch  
Rating: PGish  
Word Count: 1800  
Summary: Annabeth wants to talk to a genius.  
Warnings: Post Shamballa timeline for FMA. You might see some HoH spoiler influence in this, but it was not included/stated/even hinted at.  
A/N: I don't know where this came from. I just wanted to do it. And I ended up trying to make the Shamballa ending happier at the end, but I couldn't focus on it considering that it was from Seaweed Brain Percy's point of view.

The ghost wasn't exceptionally tall. Percy had expected someone taller, considering that this guy was some big important World War II engineer. He usually associated big or intimidating people with someone tall, to match the ego they where probably holding. This guy fell (pun intended) short of expectations. Percy didn't know how old he expected ghosts to look, Bianca had been the same age as the day she died.  
Percy had kind of figured that it was that way for most ghosts. But this guy had lived for a very long time-according to Annabeth. Yet a teenage boy appeared before him.

Despite the white wispy look that faded people's coloring, Percy could tell that this guy had really sharp golden eyes and gold hair pulled into a ponytail. He was wearing WWII style clothing, brown slacks a white dress shirt and brown vest. Brown loafers. He dressed like an adult despite being a kid.

"Edward Elric," Annabeth whispered next to Percy, in complete awe.

"How did you...?" The ghost, Edward, looked confused. He looked at the three of them, Percy, Annabeth, and Nico, their ghost summoner. "How where you able to bring me back to life." He looked at them in a searching manner, like he expected to see a certain object on them to raise the dead or something.

Nico made a sort of jostle-shrug movement. "I didn't bring you back to life, you're still a ghost and I can send you back with the flick of my fingers." Nico gave the ghost a challenging look. Percy figured that the dude probably had a lot of ghost who thought they had gained their own free will.

"But!" The ghost seemed to still be in complete awe and confusion. "You can achieve this with alchemy?"

"Alchemy?" Nico and Percy both looked over at Annabeth. She was one to know stuff like that.

Annabeth rolled her eyes, like Percy and Nico should know this kind of stuff. "Before the science of chemistry had been discovered, people tried to figure out way to make useless objects such as lead and straw into gold. A child of Hades had first started the craze by pulling precious metals out of the ground and replacing the straw with the gold. She was preforming the first ever magic trick, Emphasis on 'trick'. Later priestesses of Hectate would figure out how to actually preform alchemy, but the process would be kept a secret from the public, not a stunt of entertainment like the daughter of Hades made it." Annabeth explained everything in such a matter-of-fact tone that Percy could tell Nico was becoming irritated with her.

The ghost looked even more confused. "Where am I?"

"Brooklyn, New York. Is there somewhere else you expected to be?" Nico raised his eyebrow. Annabeth furrowed hers.

Edward looked let down. "Oh, no." He shook his head. "What did you summon me for?"

Annabeth's face lit up. "I'm doing a research project on..."

That's around when Percy zoned out. Annabeth had tried to explain what she was trying to build for the camp before. She was trying to prepare for the battle with the Titans coming up next summer. It was only fall and Percy didn't want to think about it. He wanted to go to school and just try to pretend that he didn't know armageddon was coming and that the fate of the world completely rested on his shoulders. Nah, he'd rather be like the rest of the kids his age, worrying about finishing that research paper or whether or not they where going to be invited to THAT party.

Percy looked over at his friends-he couldn't decide whether he considered Nico his friend yet, considering how much the kid had wanted to kill him. Annabeth was listening to Edward talk with her eyes shinning and a wide grin on her face. She only smiled like that when she was being a total engineering/architect/mad scientist geek. The ghost was complimenting her. "When I was young like you I was also an innovator-" Blah blah blah. Nico also seemed to be listening to the ghost attentively. Percy must've been the only one who thought it was weird that the ghost was talking about "when I was young" yet he was just a teenager.

But what the ghost had said earlier bothered Percy. He had asked where he was and learning that he was in New York had saddened the dead guy. Had he died trying to get somewhere? It sure seemed like it.

Percy's ADHD really started kicking in as he tried to come up with a story for the guy.

Maybe he had traveled the world in search of this one magical... No, maybe Aleto stole him away from his home and condemned him to work for the gods and he spent the rest of his life trying to come up with this magical potion for the gods so that they wouldn't kill him, but the potion didn't exist and he was miserable. Or maybe his godly parent...

Wait, was this guy a demigod?

Percy pondered the question for a moment.

Annabeth had said the guy was super important, something about being a big part of WWII. And most important and influential people in history tended to to be mixed up with the gods in some way...

Yet, the way the guy talked, about being an innovator and all, it didn't sound demigodish. Most dead famous guys would've mentioned how they bested so and so god. Or how they were [insert Greek god here]'s favorite. Edward didn't.

And he had been shocked, genuinely shocked, by the idea of Nico raising him front the dead. Most ghosts didn't question it. The people they usually had to raise for their missions would either start worshiping Nico ( a Ghost King thing), start bragging about how important and great they were when they were alive, or would cause everything they "touched" to spontaneously combust, but that's another story.

Percy was brought out of his thoughts and back into reality by Annabeth.

"What was the name of your hometown?" Annabeth had a clipboard with a sheet she was writing down everything the ghost said down in pen. She leaned forward, looking like a real reporter.

Edward's face darkened, if that was even really possible considering that he consisted of a shimmering mass of light. "I don't like to talk of where I come from."

"But that's what I'm interested in. Your origins as to how you could've known of the uranium bomb are completely unknown. You just suddenly appeared in Germany. You weren't on any previous censuses in Germany or in surrounding countries." Annabeth raised her eyebrow when she finished her statement, letting it's intimidation ask the question.

Edward shrugged. "I don't see why anyone would care so much to know considering that as long as I did what I did, where I and the information came from shouldn't be of concern."

"But if I knew that would make me a revolutionary in terms of WWII history," Annabeth said. "I don't see why it has to be such a secret, where you came from."

Annabeth took a deep breath and her mouth turned down into a frown. Percy could practically see the wheels in her head turning as she thought. "No one is going to hurt you for where you came from or who you are." Her facial expression had some kind of sincere sadness to it. It made Percy want to curl up next to her, hug her. Just be able to hold her.

But for some unknown reason, Percy thought of Nico when Annabeth talked. Annabeth talked of acceptance and the son of Hades believed he would find none, not in the cap, not anywhere. Percy wondered what he thought of what Annabeth was saying. He looked over at Nico and say that his mouth was turned into a deep frown. His eyes were unreadable.

Edward scoffed. "I'm not a Jew. I'm an atheist. I don't believe in the existence of God, but thank you for your concern."

Annabeth's eyebrows knitted and Percy prayed she wouldn't go on a tirade about God's existence.

She didn't.

"Then why..."

"It doesn't matter!" Edward looked fundamentally pissed off. Percy knew he probably couldn't do anything to them-he'd go right through them if he tried to touch them-but Percy's flight instinct still pounded at the base of his skull. 'Run! Run! Run!'

"But-"

Edward gave a disgusted sounding sigh, and the disappeared. Like, 'Poof. I quit.'

Annabeth turned around to Nico before Percy had even fully registered that Edward Elric was gone. "Nico, get him back! He's gone!"

Nico shrugged. "When ghosts leave they leave. He won't be coming back."

Annabeth turned back around to the German's head stone. "There has to be a way!"

"I leave offerings for them and they rise. But if he doesn't want to rise he doesn't have to accept me offerings." Nico picked up the cheeseburger wrapper off the ground. "I kinda doubt he'll come a second time." He tucked the wrapper in his pocket.

It was then that Percy noticed what bad posture Nico had always had. He hunched over, his head downwards as if trying to make himself smaller to disappear. What Annabeth said about acceptance bloomed in his head again. She had been talking about the Jewish extermination during WWII, yet Percy felt as it applied to more at the moment. But how he could he say anything about it. 'Hey you know what Annabeth was saying about how people are accepting now a days? Yeah, well we aren't bothered by you, so you could come back to camp with us next year and stuff', didn't really seem to Percy like it would cut it.

"Ugh." Annabeth hung her head in defeat. "I guess I'll just have to do the standard Google research for my project."

"What a shame," Percy said. "It won't win a Nobel prize."

Annabeth rolled her eyes at him. She turned to leave the cemetery. "C'mon Seaweed Brain."

Percy followed her.

They walked a few feet before Annabeth turned around again. "What are you doing Nico? C'mon!"

Percy hadn't even noticed that Nico had simply stayed behind, still standing at the Elric grave. He looked up at them nervously, but slowly started to follow them.

Percy would leave the talking to Annabeth, because obviously, right after thinking about the kid, he could just as easily forget him. He was like a ghost himself, always there, yet so easily forgotten.

Except some ghosts can't easily be forgotten. As Percy left the cemetery, he noticed another grave, not far from Edward Elric's. The name read 'Winry Rockbell'. He had no idea why the name stuck, or felt like something important, but it did.


End file.
